The Flower Girl
by goodbye world
Summary: "Lucy had no one to talk to. So she conversed with her flowers." The story of Lucy Weasley, the nondescript little green thumb girl. Eventual LucyLorcan.
1. Chapter 1

**All right, so this is all about Lucy Weasley. I was just going to make it a one-shot, but… it got a bit out of control. So it'll just be Lucy's story, in a multi-chapter fic instead. Enjoy!**

Audrey Weasley was a Muggle. Thus, she could not use magic. She couldn't participate in Quidditch or any other game that wizards played for recreation. So she had different hobbies. Like gardening. Audrey had the best garden in the entire Weasley family, and she didn't even use magic to create or maintain it.

Lucy grew up with this garden quite literally in her front yard. So is it really any coincidence that she came to love the flowers too?

Little Lucy, with yellow-blond hair and sapphire eyes, had spent every day in the garden since before she could walk. While her father was at work in the Ministry, her mother would work in the garden with Lucy next to her and Molly sitting primly close by, but not close enough to actually touch the soil (she hated getting dirty). Lucy could hold a trowel before she could speak and things went on from there. By the age of six she was watering the plants and sometimes helping with the potting.

Audrey was overjoyed at the chance to share her passion with her daughter. She taught Lucy as much as she could over the next two years.

But when Lucy was eight her mother got sick. It was cancer. A Muggle disease. Percy took Audrey to St. Mungo's but the Healers had no idea how to treat the sickness. They had no experience with it, and had never tried to cure it because it was, after all, a Muggle illness. Witches and wizards didn't get cancer. So Audrey was discharged from St. Mungo's and checked into a Muggle hospital. By then, though, it was too late. Audrey was dead by the time Lucy turned nine.

Percy threw himself even harder into his work. He had already been gone quite often but now he would be away by six thirty or seven in the morning and not back until nine at night. Molly was at Hogwarts. A nanny was hired to take care of Lucy. This woman, Mrs. Pecker, was in her early fifties with gray-streaked cinnamon hair. She fed Lucy three times a day and made sure she was clean and healthy, but that was pretty much all. The rest of the time Mrs. Pecker put her glasses on her beaked nose and read romance novels.

And Lucy? Well, she spent her time in the garden. It made her feel less lonely. With her mother, father, and sister all gone from her life most of the time, she had no one to talk to. So she conversed with her flowers. They all had personalities. The climbing roses were prideful and supercilious. They lifted their petals and only condescended to answer her in snooty, snobbish tones. The marigolds were cheerful and optimistic, but sometimes their constant happiness only saddened Lucy more. Tulips were fickle, feminine, and giggly. Lilies were bubbly and merry, dahlias graceful and soft-spoken, forget-me-nots melancholy and moody, daisies childish, mums stoic and proper. Really, daffodils made the best conversation with their quiet, pensive, but still somehow optimistic advice.

It was always a bit of a struggle to get her flowers, because her father couldn't stand to take her out. It would remind him too much of her mother. She had to beg Mrs. Pecker for weeks on end before the nanny would agree to take her to the nursery. She saved up all her allowance and birthday money for those few occasions, buying seeds as often as she could because they were so much cheaper than the already germinated plants.

Lucy spent the two and a half years after her mother's death in this manner.

Springs meant that her daffodils would finally grow—they were bulbs, so she planted them in autumn and they germinated once the weather got warm again. This time of year was always happy for Lucy. She could plant as many flowers as she wanted as the earth warmed again.

Summer was the best time of year. This was when Molly finally came home and Lucy had someone to talk to. Sometimes. Molly had a lot of friends, so she went out a lot, to their houses. The cousins sometimes visited Lucy and sometimes she visited them, but somehow she just didn't feel comfortable talking to most of them. Generally she just escaped outside and hid in the gardens. This was when the brightest, showiest flowers bloomed. She did like them, but she couldn't help but miss her daffodils. They wilted as soon as the temperature rose, remaining dormant until next spring.

In autumn she planted her mums and everyone else left again. She spent more and more time in the garden, knowing that soon winter would come and she would be confined indoors with no flowers. Her father didn't allow potted plants in the house. If the flowers were in the garden he could ignore them. But indoors was off-limits.

Winter was the worst. Lucy had no plants to talk to, nothing to take her mind off the loneliness. She tried to occupy herself by studying or reading or anything, really, but it wasn't the same. Her birthday came and went in February. She received clothes, books, and money from her family. The clothes were all frill, girly dresses that she would never wear for fear of soiling them. The books were stories and novels that she would try to read. But she just wasn't interested in them like she would have been in a gardening manual. The money she saved for the spring when she would buy her flowers, soil, and mulch.

Then, the summer of 2018, she prepared to go to Hogwarts. She received her letter in July and went school shopping in early August. She had finished _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_, the Herbology text, before September even came.

On August 31, she said goodbye to her garden, knowing no one would care for it while she was gone and that it would probably be full of weeds and half-dead when she got back. All of her plants gave their farewells in their own way.

Marigolds: "Hogwarts'll be a blast! Good luck!"

Tulips: "Make sure you pick up a nice boy."

Roses: "Yes, well, it's not as if we need you. Go off to school."

Daisies: "Don't leave us! We'll miss you too much!"

Lilies: "You'll do great! See you next summer!"

And, in her mind, the dormant daffodils wished her well, too, saying, "It'll be fine, Lucy. You'll have the opportunity to make lots of new friends. And Hogwarts has gardens, too. Don't miss us too much. We'll always be here, waiting for you to come back."

Then it was late, and Mrs. Pecker was calling her in to go to sleep.

**Love it? Hate it? Tell me. Please review! I'll be eternally grateful.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, Chapter 2 is up! Enjoy!**

The morning of September first, she, her father, and Molly used the Floo Network to get to Kings' Cross so she didn't get the chance to go outside for any final goodbyes.

Once at the station, she hugged her father goodbye and boarded the train with Molly. "Do you want me to stay with you?" Molly asked, but she was looking off wistfully towards a group of fourth year girls.

Lucy had no doubt that her sister would stay with her if she asked. But she didn't want to keep Molly from her friends, so she said, "No, I'll be fine."

Molly smiled and went over to join her friends. Lucy made her way down the train. They had gotten there fairly early, so she had no trouble finding an empty compartment. She stowed her things and sat down, looking out the window at the people on the surrounding platform. There were teary farewells and laughing reunions. Everyone had someone else with them, someone they loved. Lucy seemed to be the only one alone.

Some other students joined her compartment, a group of girls. They looked like second or third years, but Lucy could never tell ages. The girls giggled and gossiped. Lucy stared out the window silently for the entirety of the train ride, watching the passing land and categorizing the trees she saw.

Not soon enough, they had reached Hogsmeade. She exited the train alone and made her way towards the calls of "Firs' Years" coming from a hulking figure that could only be Hagrid. There were several other first years surrounding him Lucy tried to work up the nerve to introduce herself, remembering how the daffodils had encouraged her to make friends with other people. Just as she was about to say hello to a friendly-looking blond boy next to her, Hagrid began leading the first years to the lake. She sighed. He probably wouldn't be interested in talking to her, anyway. No one was. At least, no humans were.

She would have to do better. When she got back home, she wanted to be able to tell the daffodils all about her new—human—friends. She wanted her flowers to be proud of her.

She was silent in the middle of the other first years' incessant chattering. They reminded her of her daisies. She was about to try talking again when they reached the school and were in front of the Great Hall. Lucy barely had time to begin her anxiety over Sortings when the doors to the Great Hall swung open and the first years proceeded forward.

The Sortings began, Professor Longbottom calling out names alphabetically. All too soon, there were only three first years left and Lucy heard, "Weasley, Lucy." She stepped up to the front, sat on the stool, and had the Sorting Hat placed on her head. It slipped down past her ears, covering most of her face. She heard giggles from the students and blushed. She had always been very small. Luckily, the Hat was hardly on at all before it called out, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

She removed the Sorting Hat, still blushing, and made her way to the Hufflepuff table. Molly was in Hufflepuff, too, so Lucy took solace in that, glad that she wouldn't be completely alone.

She pretended she was in her garden, talking to her daisies, and she made a stab at conversation with the girl—another first year—sitting next to her. She learned that the girl's name was Miranda Grove and that was about all. They spoke meaninglessly over the Sorting Ceremony and worries for Hogwarts. Lucy tried to emulate the conversations she had heard from the older girls who had been in her train compartment, even throwing in a girlish giggle every now and then.

"I'm so nervous about Transfiguration, though," Miranda said. "Everyone says it's the hardest class."

Lucy agreed outwardly while sighing internally. If Miranda already knew Transfiguration was hard, why did she blather on about her worries rather than asking for help from an older student? Was this what all relationships with people were like? Meaningless surface chatter? But… she would keep on doing it, Lucy decided. Even if it wasn't her favorite thing to do, she wouldn't be completely alone like she had been before. She would at least have civil, friendly relationships with her housemates, even if they weren't the best of friends.

So she did. Lucy became sort-of friends with each of her housemates, and even some of the other students in school. She observed the others and acted as she thought they would, talking, giggling, gossiping.

Lucy was _accepted_. Her relationships with the other first years were normal. They probably thought she was just like one of them. She had dedicated the whole of her first year to gain that reputation. Normal.

But normal people weren't supposed to feel lonely when they had friends, right? Lucy had only ever wanted friends, to escape the loneliness that had plagued her since her mother's death. So how come, now that she was accepted into the normal, average society of first years, she still felt lonely and unfulfilled.

She snuck off to the greenhouses every so often and, with the plants, she felt more at ease than she ever did with her friends. But she wouldn't talk to the flowers. What if someone happened to come in and see her? They would think she was crazy. That wouldn't have been normal at all. And if Lucy wasn't normal, then what was to stop her friends from leaving her? Absolutely nothing.

So, when, the summer after first year, Lucy went home to her garden, she told her daffodils all about her new friends.

But, oh, she could never fool them. The marigolds and lilies might congratulate her on success and the tulips might ask if she had met any nice boys yet but the daffodils knew. She didn't know how, but they saw her loneliness and refused to let her cover it up with lies and artificial niceties about her friends. Even dormant they were strong enough to tell her that she wasn't happy, that she had to be herself if she ever wanted to make any real friends.

At first Lucy denied all their claims, but eventually they got to her. She realized that here, at home, talking to her flowers (who weren't even human, or _sentient_, for crying out loud) she felt less lonely than she did when she was pretending with her friends.

She wouldn't pretend anymore.

**P.S: If you like this, be sure to go check out **_**The Bookworm**_**. It's Victoire's fic. Eventually I'll get around to doing one for each Next Gen character, but these are the only two up. For now.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three for Lucy! This one's a bit angsty, but oh, well.**

Then it was January twelfth. The anniversary of Audrey's death. Lucy woke up crying and got dressed hurriedly, going out to the greenhouses for solace, deciding to skip breakfast. She thanked Merlin that it was a Sunday. She didn't think she could handle classes today.

Lucy picked up a watering can, tears streaming silently down her face. The greenhouses were her saviors, with their ability to grow plants in winter. The space was limited, however, and so was wholly dedicated to magical plants. None of her familiar flower friends here. Still, she was calmed slightly as she watered and pruned the plants by hand.

As she passed by the greenhouse walls, Lucy caught sight of her reflection in the windowed surface. Her usually bright blue eyes were red-rimmed and puffy and her short blond hair was tousled. It was so obvious that she had been crying! She tried to think of a way to erase the evidence when Marcy Wickett, a second year Ravenclaw, ran into the greenhouse and towards Lucy. Lucy saw Marcy take in her appearance and cringed inwardly, but Marcy said nothing about it. "I need help," she cried instead.

Lucy nodded wearily. She really wasn't in the mood for this today, but Marcy looked as if she had been crying, too, and who was she to denounce another's pain? Lucy wouldn't mind being comforted herself. It was the golden rule. "What is it?" She tried to make her voice sound sympathetic.

"You know the big Herbology test coming up?"

Lucy nodded.

"Well, I'm terrible at Herbology and everyone's making fun of me. They say I'm supposed to be smarter because I'm a Ravenclaw. I'm so embarrassed about my grades in this class. I just want to get a really good grade on this test so they'll stop teasing me. Can you help me study?" Marcy looked at Lucy pleadingly.

Oh, why did it have to be today? Any other time she would have jumped at the chance to help another student with her favorite subject. But today… she just wanted to drown out her sorrows, alone with the plants.

Marcy was so desperate, though. Lucy couldn't in good conscience leave her to get picked on, even if it seemed insignificant to her. It obviously mattered to Marcy. No, Lucy would help her. Maybe they could eventually become friends, and Lucy could go home and tell her daffodils about it.

So she forced a smile and said as amiably as she could, "All right. So let's start with the basic properties of the Liverwort phylum of plants…"

Marcy leaned forward eagerly as Lucy went over the material, showing the anatomy and magical properties of the plants in the greenhouse. After about an hour, Lucy had finished with the plants covered on the test. "…and if you remember all that, you'll ace the test for sure."

Marcy grinned. "Thank you sooo much! You're really good at explaining things, Lucy. I'll get a good grade thanks to you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Lucy smiled at her tiredly, waving off the thanks, and Marcy scampered off, no doubt to brag about her new Herbology knowledge to all her tormentors.

Lucy leaned back on the wall of the greenhouse, sinking down to the ground. She was exhausted! Her eyes drooped. Maybe she'd just rest them for a minute… just a minute….

She came back to consciousness slowly, blearily opening her eyes. She was lying on the floor of the greenhouse. Her robes were covered in dirt and she suspected that her face and hair were just as bad. Lucy sat up.

"So, you're finally awake. I've been sitting here for ages."

Lucy started and turned to find Molly leaning against the wall next to her. She looked uncomfortable—Molly hated dirty things and the greenhouses were covered in loose soil—but she was there. "Molly!"

Molly sighed, red curls drooping as she leaned forward to Lucy. "You disappeared this morning. I looked for you all over school before coming here. Are you all right?"

Lucy looked down, her eyes filling as she remembered. Then Molly's arms were around her and she heard whispered reassurances. Lucy cried in her sister's arms.

After a while, her tears dried, and Molly said, "Are you better now?"

Lucy sighed. She was better, but still not good.

"All right, then," Molly said, standing up. "Let's do something to get this off our minds."

Lucy stood up, too, and noticed that Molly's eyes were as red as hers. She reached over and pulled her sister into one more tight hug, then let go and gave Molly a watery smile. "Yeah."

So Lucy showed Molly around the greenhouse and taught her how best to take care of her favorite plants. Soon enough it was getting late and Lucy's stomach began to growl. She realized that she hadn't eaten all day.

"Dinner time?" Molly asked.

Lucy nodded.

They finished up the night in peace, together, and no more tears came.

After that day, things went back to normal. Perhaps she and Molly were a bit closer, shared more of a bond, but everything else was much the same. Lucy went back to taking care of her plants every day and an even greater influx of people came to her for advice. She was up to one, sometimes two, every day. Most who sought her help were second and first years, but there was the occasional third or even fourth year in the mix as well. She sometimes wondered why they came, when they didn't even know her. Her advice wasn't that good. Maybe it was just that she listened. Lots of people had trouble with that, for some reason.

In February, her birthday passed uneventfully. Her family sent her the usual things and Molly even got the House Elves to make her a cake. Lucy refused any kind of a party. That would just be uncomfortable for her.

**Review? Maybe? Please?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four! (Sorry Lorcan hasn't been in much... or at all. I promise I'll get him in here eventually. Just wait until fourth year!) Anyway, this one's a bit more upbeat than the last, so that's a good thing, because I stink a angst.**

Quickly, it was summer and Lucy was home with her flowers. She had missed the daffodils' bloom, since it happened in spring. She was sad about that but hardly let it dampen her spirits. She had to fix up the garden a lot, since it was chock full of weeds and her perennials weren't very, well, perennial anymore. Lucy bought all new flowers with her savings and replanted her garden.

Mrs. Pecker wasn't there anymore. Lucy's father had deemed her services unnecessary now that Molly was sixteen and Lucy thirteen. They did, however, spend a lot of time at the Burrow, as Percy was still a bit wary of leaving his daughters completely unsupervised.

There were always at least a couple of their other cousins at the Burrow when Lucy and Molly visited. Lucy felt a bit uncomfortable around them, as she had for a few years now. She just felt so dull and nondescript around all of their vibrant personalities. She was just the friendless flower girl next to their fire and charisma and passion.

Sometimes she would play with them but mostly she just worked in Grandma Molly's garden or listened to her grandparents talk. They were actually interesting to listen to, unlike most people. Perhaps it was because they were old enough to know the meaninglessness of surface chatter. Grandma Molly and Grandpa Arthur actually talked about _things_. Whether it be Muggle contraptions or a new recipe, they spoke about things that actually mattered to them, and that was eternally interesting to Lucy.

One day, though, while Lucy was in the kitchen with Grandpa Arthur, listening to him explain how eckeltricity worked, Louis came in and said, "Sorry, Granddad, but can I borrow Lucy from you?"

Grandpa Arthur nodded amiably, waving them off. Lucy was confused. Why did Louis want to talk to her? He was going to be a seventh year when they went back to Hogwarts. What could he possibly want with her?

Louis wiped his hands on his jeans. Were they sweating? He was nervous? "So, you like flowers, right?" he asked.

Lucy nodded, wondering where this was going.

"And you grow them at home?"

She gave the affirmative again.

Louis looked down at her. "Would you maybe be able to make me a bouquet? With lilies?"

Lucy grinned. He wanted flowers. He wanted _her_ flowers. For some reason that made her really happy. "Sure. But why?"

Louis sighed. "Livia McNeal. You know, with the shiny hair? Lilies are her favorite flower."

That would explain the nervousness. Louis was such a romantic. She didn't really know why he was stressing about this. He could probably get any girl he wanted. But she agreed, telling him to come home with her today and she'd make him his bouquet.

That afternoon, back in her own garden, Lucy asked, "So, what kind of lilies do you want? I've got some asiatics, daylilies, aurelians, trumpets, even some stargazers." She gestured to the different variations all around the garden.

Louis blinked. "There are that many? Geez, Lucy, how do you know all of this?"

She smiled, proud of her garden. "Actually there are nine main divisions of lilies. I haven't even got half of what's available."

"Wow. Well, I like the bright yellow ones. Daylilies, were they? And the stargazers are really nice, too. Thanks so much for doing this, Lucy. Your garden's really pretty, you know." He looked around appreciatively.

Lucy went to get her clippers. She'd actually been meaning to deadhead some of the lilies, so at least the blooms would go to good use. "Oh, it's not my garden," she corrected. "It's mom's. But she'd be glad that you like it. Do you want anything else in with the lilies?" she asked, turning back to Louis with the clippers.

He was staring at her sadly. She looked down. People always got like this when she mentioned her mother. Lucy was actually pretty good with the grief, except on the anniversary of her mom's death each year.

She turned away from Louis, continuing her train of thought, "I think some lantana and baby's breath would look nice, don't you?"

"Yeah," Louis answered, seeming to go back to normal. "You're probably better at this than I am, anyway. Whatever you think."

She grinned, choosing her blooms carefully and gathering them together. "Let me go see if Molly's got any ribbons, okay?" she asked, and ran inside. A few minutes later, she returned with a pale yellow satiny ribbon and tied it around the arranged flowers. "There you are," she said, handing him the bouquet. "Knock her dead."

Louis thanked her again and rushed inside to floo away, likely to Livia's house.

Lucy was pleased with her work. She had liked using her flowers to make people happy. It was… fun. She turned back to her garden and told her flowers about her new happiness. The dormant daffodils gave her their pleasure in her joy. They were proud of her. She smiled, and then discovered that one of her roses had a case of black spot and went to get the plant medicine.

The next morning, Louis flooed to her house, found her in the garden, and pulled her into a hug, spinning her around. "It worked! She said she'd go out with me! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Lucy!"

Lucy rolled her eyes at his antics, knowing full well that Livia would have gone out with Louis if he had showed up at her house with weeds in place of flowers.

But she was happy. She had found a friend in her older cousin and she grew more at ease around the rest of her family. Lucy only ever wanted real friends.

The rest of the summer passed in a blur and soon it was time to start school again. Molly was a prefect, so Lucy went off to sit with the other Hufflepuff third years. Louis popped his head into her compartment to introduce her to Livia (who really did have very shiny brown hair) amid sighs from the younger girls.

"He's really your cousin, Lucy?" Ally asked. "You're so lucky!"

Lucy held back a fit of laughs. Louis truly could have any girl he wanted.

**If, by some miracle, you liked this enough, please shoot me a review.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Next Chapter! Okay, I promise Lorcan will be in soon (two or three chapters, maybe?) Thanks for being patient! I just didn't want them to fall in love or anything when she was eleven… So I'll wait.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

That year was fairly normal. People continued to come to her for advice and she began to enjoy giving it out. Lucy liked helping people. She would just pretend she was a daffodil and give them the same pensive advice her flowers gave her.

January twelfth fell on a Tuesday that year, so Lucy found Molly when she woke up in the morning and the two sisters skipped classes and spent the day together, in each other's comfort.

Then, on February twelfth, Louis came to Lucy again to beg flowers. Since Valentine's Day was approaching, he wanted to do something extra-special for Livia, who he was still dating. Lucy said that she would try to get him a bouquet, but it was the middle of winter, and none of her usual flowers were given space in the greenhouses. "Let's go look, though," she told Louis, heading out to the greenhouse. "I'm sure we can find something. I do feel a bit guilty taking the school's flowers, but they've got to be deadheaded anyway."

In greenhouse three, where most of the flowering plants were kept, Lucy gestured to a pot of singing daisies, confident now that she was among the plants. The daisies came in pink, orange, yellow, and lavender. "These are pretty, but they're kind of loud. I'd go with yellow if you were going to get any. They're the least shrill."

Louis nodded.

Lucy went to the back of the greenhouse and climbed the ladder there to get to the climbing flowers. They all managed to grow on the ceiling, so it was covered in plants, as well. A few were even as large as umbrellas. She didn't quite think those would fit in the bouquet. Instead, she gravitated towards some of the mallowsweet blooms, which resembled her roses. Mallowsweet was highly magical and used for divination but only the leaves, so she doubted anyone would mind her taking the blooms. Clipping off some blue, red, and pink ones, she returned down the ladder to Louis, handing these to him as well.

"Now just let me get a bit of dittany as a filler," she said. The tiny, pale yellow flowers would perfectly complement the larger, brighter blooms. Lucy grabbed a few sprigs and returned to Louis, taking the flowers and arranging them prettily. Without any ribbons to tie them off with, she instead pulled the hair tie from her ponytail and wrapped that around the stems.

The daisies had lowered their voices to a lullaby-like song and the bright mallowsweet drew the eye while the dittany completed the bouquet nicely. "And there you are," she said, handing him the flowers. "You'll want to keep them in a vase with water and maybe do an anti-wilting charm to keep them fresh," she added.

He stared at the bouquet in awe. "How did you _do_ that? I would have been completely lost. And without mundane flowers, too. I was actually kind of worried that there wouldn't be any pretty ones left."

Lucy laughed, a light tinkling laugh, not quite full, but still better than the girlish giggle she'd used before. "You've just got to look around and you'll see it. It's actually really fun! Come back any time and I'll get you more flowers. I doubt Professor Longbottom will mind, so long as I don't give out anything too valuable. He brings bouquets to his wife _all_ the time." Lucy shrugged and smiled.

Louis grinned back, thanked her again, and ran off.

Lucy was not surprised at that. Even though he was a seventh year, she sometimes wondered if Louis had grown up at all.

She was, however, surprised when, hardy a quarter of an hour later, two more seventh year Gryffindor boys who she'd never spoken to before entered her greenhouse. And she was positively shocked when they came over and asked her for flowers.

She must have looked dumbfounded, because the shorter of the two looked at his friend and said, "Are you sure this is all right? I mean, I know Louis said she would help us, but…" he glanced over at Lucy skeptically.

She blinked, indignant. Of course she would help them! She was just surprised at two seventh years coming in here and asking for flowers when she had absolutely no idea who they were. She put her hands on her hips, attempting to look less diminutive and childish (and failing miserably) and asked, "What kind of flowers do you need?"

The boys, who had been arguing about whether or not to leave, looked over at her, surprised. "Well, it's Valentine's soon…" the taller one began.

"Yes," Lucy said, fighting back the urge to congratulate him on knowing the day of the month. "And…"

"And we want Valentine's Day flowers!" He seemed exasperated.

Lucy wanted to laugh. What, exactly, constituted as a Valentine's Day flower? It wasn't like they had a section of the greenhouse devoted solely to different holidays and she could just go over and show them the most romantic of the flowers. But she would help them, despite their ignorance about her plants. She couldn't expect everyone to be knowledgeable, even if they had taken at least five years of Herbology like these doorknobs. "Do you want me to just pick something out for you?"

They nodded, looking relieved.

So she went around, humming on her way. She wouldn't make it the same as Louis's, so instead she grabbed some yellow and purple mallowsweet blooms, several sprigs of a delicate white lovelast, and a bit of the lavender, bell-like arrylia. She split the flowers, yellow mallowsweet with lovelast, purple with arrylia, arranging them into two full bouquets. With nothing left, to tie the stems with, she instead handed them to the seventh years, saying, "You'll have to hold these carefully. You need to find some ribbon to tie them together and be sure to keep them in a vase overnight." She nodded definitively.

"Thanks," the tall one said, holding the yellow bouquet.

The shorter boy said nothing and they turned and left.

Lucy sighed. It _had_ been fun, so she couldn't blame them too much for their lack of manners.

She finished up in greenhouse three and returned to her dormitory, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

**And the Valentine's Day rush continues in the next chapter…**


End file.
